Observation from Melissa Coray

Observed several natural wind slab avalanches on the NE aspect of the tall peak 9795ft which is just NE of Melissa Coray. Many more ski patrol triggered avalanches were observable inbounds at Kirkwood mountain (notably on NE and E aspects) at high elevation above treeline. Our party of 2 skied an easterly aspect from 9000 ft and did not experience major surface instability. There is poor bonding of the new wind affected snow onto to previous solar impacted frozen crust, which is now buried. At the bottom of our run, I dug a mitt pit and found 35 cm of well-consolidated wind affected snow (4F) sitting on top of a buried ice crust. The crust itself was 25 cm thick at our location, and my probe could punch through to another firm slab layer. Throughout the afternoon we witnessed blowing snow being deposited into NE and N aspects, but solar aspects were simultaneously warming. As we climbed higher on our skintrack on the E aspect, I noticed the top 10cm of new snow releasing from the ice crust layer just below, making climbing challenging. All aspects today and elevations between 7800 ft and 9600 ft show signs of wind impact and consolidation.